One of the more important questions state lawmakers will face as they convene Wednesday for the 2014 legislative session is one they haven't had to deal with for some years now. And that is, how to spend

Of course it will be a tame session, it's an election year. The democratic controlled legislature rammed through all of the controversial legislation and they probbly feel lucky that only three legislators were lost. They will now try to make the electorate forget what they did by changing the disussion to poor vs rich...just as Obma is doing at the national level.

Don't let them do it. Don't forget what this legislature did to this state!

Hey, when do get my TABOR rebate!! ... Since there's a surplus, shouldn't the discussions center on lowering taxes and increasing the senior homestead (property tax) exemption rather than trying to find new ways to increase spending? How about lowering state income and sales taxes?

joe hardhat wrote:Hey, when do get my TABOR rebate!! ... Since there's a surplus, shouldn't the discussions center on lowering taxes and increasing the senior homestead (property tax) exemption rather than trying to find new ways to increase spending? How about lowering state income and sales taxes?

LOL! Keep dreaming Alice you are in Wonderland!

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Oct 11 1798John Adams (Nation's 2nd President)

Isn't it interesting how the question is "How do we spend this extra money" instead of refunding it to the taxpayers. Oh well, maybe they can use some of the money to implement some "sensible" education reforms.

"The advantage of being armed [is an advantage which] the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...In the several kingdoms of Europe...the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." - James Madison

arrdee wrote:Isn't it interesting how the question is "How do we spend this extra money" instead of refunding it to the taxpayers. Oh well, maybe they can use some of the money to implement some "sensible" education reforms.

Exactly!

restore some funding for higher education, and pay for several K-12 reforms that would have been financed by the unsuccessful Amendment 66.

Now would be a good time for Ferrandino and the rest of his democrat ilk in the legislature to put the money where their mouths are. This unspent money could go to fully fund Amendment 66, which was resoundingly defeated by the voters. Don't expect that to happen with this incompetent legislature though, simply because it's not confiscating money from the tax payers, which is what democrats prefer!

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." -- Thomas Jefferson

Democrats, having learned their lesson, say this time they will accommodate every citizen who shows up to speak on gun control measures.

That's all fine and dandy that NOW they want to hear from the people of this state, but the damage has already been done. Their ridiculous gun control laws have passed and are implemented - though probably not enforced well, due to the ridiculousness of the laws.

reasonable_doubt wrote:Of course it will be a tame session, it's an election year. The democratic controlled legislature rammed through all of the controversial legislation and they probbly feel lucky that only three legislators were lost. They will now try to make the electorate forget what they did by changing the disussion to poor vs rich...just as Obma is doing at the national level.

Don't let them do it. Don't forget what this legislature did to this state!

reasonable_doubt wrote:Of course it will be a tame session, it's an election year. The democratic controlled legislature rammed through all of the controversial legislation and they probbly feel lucky that only three legislators were lost. They will now try to make the electorate forget what they did by changing the disussion to poor vs rich...just as Obma is doing at the national level.

Don't let them do it. Don't forget what this legislature did to this state!

The Dems want it to be tame, however, I am not sure it will be.

To Dems the definition of a "tame" session is when the Republicans go along with them on everything, with the discussion directed on how much to increase spending.

I have to laugh at all the faux "oh, it's SOOOOO important to listen and we're going to really make an effort to do that from now on" nonsense from the dems. The time to listen was when you CLEARLY had massive opposition to the gun laws that you decided to ram through. You ignored it then . . . and then after you pass them and get spanked for it, you decide that a conciliatory tone might keep people from wanting to throw more of you out of office.

You overreached massively. Saying you'll listen now is like me coming and robbing your house and coming back to say "wow . . . I'm really sorry about that. You're not getting your stuff back, but I promise I'll think more carefully about robbing you the next time (even if I decide to do it again anyway)".

Dems knew they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to push one of their key agendas and they decided nothing was stopping them. They'll be paying for that miscalculation for awhile at the ballot box, I believe.

This money was already earmarked so it was/is out of play. The dems are looking for new money to spend. Don't kid yourselves they are planning something and this may start out tame but it will turn into something else. They will try to punish us for the recalls in one way or another.

Here's an idea. How about the loons just drop the gun control issue? How about they recognize the data does not support the notion that Colorado is a far left progressive state? Maybe they got a majority but it's slim and the polling shows CO is very moderate.

Look more to Bill Clinton as your idol and less to the divisive era of Barack Obama. Then you might actually get some widespread support outside of the radical base you pandered to last year.

racer wrote:This money was already earmarked so it was/is out of play. The dems are looking for new money to spend. Don't kid yourselves they are planning something and this may start out tame but it will turn into something else. They will try to punish us for the recalls in one way or another.

TAF wrote:I have to laugh at all the faux "oh, it's SOOOOO important to listen and we're going to really make an effort to do that from now on" nonsense from the dems. The time to listen was when you CLEARLY had massive opposition to the gun laws that you decided to ram through. You ignored it then . . . and then after you pass them and get spanked for it, you decide that a conciliatory tone might keep people from wanting to throw more of you out of office.

You overreached massively. Saying you'll listen now is like me coming and robbing your house and coming back to say "wow . . . I'm really sorry about that. You're not getting your stuff back, but I promise I'll think more carefully about robbing you the next time (even if I decide to do it again anyway)".

Dems knew they had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to push one of their key agendas and they decided nothing was stopping them. They'll be paying for that miscalculation for awhile at the ballot box, I believe.

Can anyone please explain how the Republicans have "listened" to their constituencies any better? Maybe they should have listened to the people of the State about civil unions back in 2012 instead of playing McNulty"s overreaching game at the end of the session. Civil unions wasn't the only issue supported by growing numbers of citizens, but they didn't listen. If they had,then maybe they wouldn't have lost so much. Republicans overreached in the House that year with only a 1 member majority. What lessons have they learned since?